Media Column

Children's Television Workshop, producer of "Sesame Street'' and
other public-television educational shows, addresses a topic designed
for an adolescent audience in a one-hour special next month.

"What Kids Want to Know About Sex and Growing Up'' is the title for
the special "extra'' edition of C.T.W.'s science show, "3-2-1
Contact.''

The show is scheduled to air at 8 P.M. on May 13 on the Public
Broadcasting Service. (Check local listings.)

C.T.W. conducted extensive research to discover what children in the
target age group of 8 to 12 years wanted to learn about sex. The
producers also consulted with more than 700 parents from a variety of
religious and socioeconomic backgrounds to ensure adult acceptance of
the show.

The show addresses such topics as physical and emotional
development, masturbation, menstruation, intercourse, conception,
parenting, AIDS, and homosexuality.

The show includes appearances by two sex educators, Robert
Selverstone and Rhonda Wise.

A parent's guide will be available for $2.25 (payable to C.T.W.) by
writing Parent's Guide, Box 40, Vernon, N.J. 07462. The show will be
available on video after it airs on PBS.

Nickelodeon, the cable-television network for children, last month
launched a magazine targeted to the 8- to 12-year-old age group.

Officials of the cable network said they plan to avoid the trend
among some media companies of "cross-promotion,'' in which magazines
are created primarily to promote programming on the network.

Instead, Nickelodeon Magazine will be driven by a philosophy of
creativity and the children's point of view.

The magazine, which is due to premiere by March 1993, will be
advertiser-supported and will be available through newsstand and
subscription sales.

A teacher's guide to "Henry V,'' the recent feature film of the
Shakespeare play that starred Kenneth Branagh in the title role, has
been distributed to every public and private high school in the nation,
according to WGBH-TV, the public-television station in Boston.

WGBH will present "Henry V'' on PBS at 9 P.M. on April 26. (Check
local listings.)

The film appears as part of the Mobil Corporation-funded
"Masterpiece Theatre'' series. Mobil has paid for two years' off-air
taping rights for teachers, which extends well beyond the 10 days after
broadcast that teachers normally have to show programs.

For copies of the teachers' guide, write to Educational Print and
Outreach, WGBH, 125 Western Ave., Boston, Mass. 02134.--M.W.

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